that was the charge mitt romney leveled today in a speech at the virginia military institute. good evening. i'm jeffrey brown. >> woodruff: and i'm judy woodruff. on the newshour tonight, we assess the differences between the two candidates on foreign policy. >> brown: then, we update the spread of the deadly meningitis outbreak, infecting more than a hundred people in nine states. >> woodruff: ray suarez examines the stem cell discovery that earned two scientists the nobel prize in medicine. >> brown: margaret warner updates the state of the presidential race with stuart rothenberg, susan page, and andrew kohut. >> woodruff: and we talk to author salman rushdie about his memoir on life on the run after being sentenced to death by iran's religious leader. >> if you had said to me, here's what's going to happen in the next 12 years, what sort of shape do you think you'll be in at the end? i would probably not have bet on myself to be in good shape, no. yet i somehow did survive it. >> brown: that's all ahead on tonight's newshour. major funding for the pbs newshour has been pro